A new High Court ruling has struck down the Albanese government’s restrictions on former immigration detainees – exposing the risks of rushed, politically driven lawmaking.

The Albanese government’s preparedness to play politics and pander to the hysteria that emerged after a 2023 High Court decision that ruled indefinite immigration detention was unlawful, has come back to bite it not once, but twice.

On Wednesday this week – ironically on the same day that one of its most distinguished former Chief Justices Anthony Mason died – the Court ruled in a case called EGH19 v Commonwealth of Australia that regulations Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke introduced for this cohort of individuals, that included restrictions such as ankle bracelets and curfews, are unconstitutional.

In 2024 the Court ruled that previous regulations dealing with this same cohort were also unconstitutional.

The history of this litigation began in 2023 when in NZYQ v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs the Court said that non-citizens in immigration detention because they had committed crimes in Australia could not be held indefinitely.

The decision saw the release of around 140 individuals. The release of this group was met in the........

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